Los Banos bests American 12s

The 12-year-old Turlock American All-Stars fell just short of victory against the Los Banos squad on Wednesday, 2-1, at Julien field.

“In the ball game you have to be perfect, and they were great and we [weren't], so they won. The pressure is always on us because we are expected to always win and not lose,” Turlock American coach Nate Mirza said. “We cannot think of the pressure when were out there and need to just play ball.”

The only run for the American squad came after Joe Romeo blasted a solo homerun to deep right center in the first inning to open up the game and take the quick 1-0 lead. The American side would only produce four hits all game as the Los Banos pitching was sensational.

Romeo started the game for the American side and went 4 1/3 innings, allowed one hit and two unearned runs. Kaleb Welch came in the fifth inning to relieve Romeo and he went 1 2/3 shutout innings, allowing no runs.

“Our talent, pitching and batting is outstanding, Welch and Romeo were throwing hard, and these guys are expecting to go far, but if we don’t get the bats going we don’t deserve to go anywhere,” Mirza said.

The first run for Los Banos came after a throwing error to first. The second run was scored in the fourth after a third called strike and the base runner stole home after a second throwing error that would eventually cost the team a win.

“Two errors cost us the ball game; at this level you cannot expect to win like that making errors,” Mirza said. “We have the best hitting in the district, but just because we're the best hitting doesn’t mean we are perfect and we weren’t and took too many pitches. We didn’t hit the way we have the ability to.”

The American team will be playing the winner of Friday's Mariposa and Turlock National matchup today.